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About Us
Countryside Balloons is Essex and Suffolk's most experienced and longest running balloon operator, with local knowledge and experience that, we feel, is second to none. Our passenger ballooning experience, in Essex alone, began in the early 1990’s. We are licensed by the Civil Aviation Authority to operate balloon flights in the UK and all our pilots hold UK commercial pilot's licenses rated for public transport. We carry liability insurance for all passengers.
Our Chief Pilot
As one of only a few highly qualified group C chief pilots in Britain and the only one in Essex, Tim Parker, our principal pilot, has an enormous wealth of passenger ballooning experience to offer passengers of Countryside Balloons. This is Tim’s 16th season with us. In addition to flying full time for us he has been involved in safety projects with the Civil Aviation Authority and has consulted with Cameron Balloons, the world’s largest balloon manufacturer, to have manufactured a purpose-built balloon basket to increase space and safety for passengers.
 Our Balloons
Our hot air balloons are all ‘state of the art’ design and are maintained to high standards in order to retain our excellent safety record. The balloons are all fitted with rotation vents, allowing them to be rotated through 360° to give passengers a full panoramic view of the landscape below.
Innovation and design
Countryside Balloons has worked closely with the world's leading balloon manufacturer to design a balloon basket with off-set internal partitions. This basket not only improves upon passenger safety, but also allows for increased passenger comfort and space. It has been fitted with seats and head supports for increased comfort when landing, making it a leader in this field.
An industry leader
Our ground support equipment has been designed and purpose built to increase safety and efficiency with the loading and offloading of ballooning equipment. Countryside Balloons was first to introduce GPS moving map technology to the balloon basket and GPS balloon tracking in the ground support vehicles, much of the above is being adopted by the ballooning industry.
A Red Letter Day
In the mid 1990s, the UK's No.1 experience company, Red Letter Days, approached Countryside Balloons to fly all their hot air ballooning experience passengers for Essex. Since then over 40 other experience companies have approached us, as members of the Balloons Over Britain group, to have their ballooning experience passengers flown in Essex by Countryside Balloons.
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